For many years, it has been customary to harvest forage crops, such as various kinds of hay and leaf-type forage plants by mowing the same in a field, letting them lie for several days to dry, forming the cut and at least partially dried crop into windrows, and passing a hay-baling machine over and along such windrows to form the crop into rectangular bales which are secured by passing one or more tying strands around the bale. The bales then are picked up by various means and are taken to a barn or similar building in which piles of such bales are stored until used. In recent years, it has been found that if hay and similar forage crops are formed into a large, compact roll by various types of machines, the cylindrical formation of the roll tends to provide self-shedding of rain and other inclement weather substances if the roll is left lying in a field or feed lot where cattle and other herbivorous animals may feed upon it, without requiring the roll to be taken to a storage shed.
Large rolls of forage crops of the type described frequently are of the order of 4 or 5 feet in diameter and 6 or 8 feet long. Rolls of this size may weigh as much as over a ton. If they are to be moved, following the formation thereof, special types of equipment must be used. The present invention is concerned with the formation of compact rolls of forage material, such as hay, and the details thereof are setforth hereinafter.
Forming compact, large rolls of hay has engaged the attention of various inventors heretofore. Several different principles have been utilized in the inventions thus produced. One type forms a roll or coil of hay and the like by initiating the formation of such roll by suitable mechanism and continue to roll a swath or windrow of the hay while supported upon the ground. Examples of such mechanisms are shown in prior U.S. Pat. No. 3,110,145, to Avery, dated Nov. 12, 1963. Another such machine comprises the subject matter of U.S. Pat. No. 3,650,100, to Swan, dated Mar. 21, 1972. One of the principle difficulties resulting from this method of forming rolls of hay is that a certain amount of the hay remains upon the field without being included in the roll of hay, such as the fines. Further, dirt, clods of earth, stones and the like also can be picked up by the roll and this is undesirable under certain circumstances.
A second principle method of forming rolls of the type referred to comprises a machine in which a swath or windrow of the crop is picked up from the field and directed onto a supporting conveyor or the like while the same is formed into a coil or roll of the forage crop and is out of contact with the ground, thus resulting in the formation of a cleaner type of roll or coil of hay, as well as the same including most if not all of the fines of the crop, thus minimizing waste. One example of a prior machine for forming a coil or roll of hay is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 3,665,690, to Wenger, dated May 30, 1972. The particular design of the machine shown in said patent offers a certain amount of friction between the roll and the supporting frame of the machine, which is undesirable, and another undesirable feature is that the coil of hay is formed upon a core member rather than being a free-form of roll which has no core or mandrel. The foregoing objectionable features are obviated in the design of machine comprising the present invention and a substantial number of improvements in the art of forming large sizes of compact rolls of hay and other forage crops are provided in said machine, details of which are described hereinafter.
Another type of roll forming machine is illustrated in U.s. Pat. No. 3,722,197, to Vermeer, dated Mar. 27, 1973 in which an upper set of belts is mounted for expansion from a contracted pattern as the size of the roll increases and such expansion is resisted by forces applied by hydraulic cylinder units but pressure applied to the belts by the hydraulic units does not increase as the circumferential area of the roll increases and therefore uniform density is not achieved. Also, the roll is supported from below by a series of belts which extend across rollers but sagging and and stretching of the belts occurs between the rollers. Further, by engaging the roll of crop product by a series of belts in spaced side-by-side relationship and extending parallel to the longitudinal axes of the machine slippage of the belts with the roll occurs and provides a much less positive drive to rotate the roll than when an aggressive engagement is provided.
Still another type of roll forming machine is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,627,223, in which a plurality of sets of force exerting means are applied against the periphery of a roll of crop product, said sets comprising rigid members which are spring biased toward the roll which attempt to maintain the core of the roll or bale as tight as possible, as distinguished from achieving substantially uniform density throughout the roll. Said patent is dated 1953, to Berge.
The improved features for a hay roll forming machine which comprise the present invention are part of a complete machine which has other novel and patentable features in addition to those of the present invention. Such other features comprise the subject matters of other related applications in which the instant inventors or others are the inventors. However, for purposes of providing a full understanding of the present invention and the benefits afforded the overall machine thereby, a description of the entire machine, or at least a substantial part thereof is set forth hereinafter relative to suitable drawings to illustrate the same, the present invention being described and shown in particular therein.